A THEORY OF TRAFFIC FLOW FOR EVALUATION OF GEOMETRIC ASPECTS OF HIGHWAYS

AN ANALYTIC APPROACH IS DEVELOPED WHEREBY THE VARIOUS ASPECTS OF A HIGHWAY (SUCH AS CURVES, GRADES, LANE WIDTH, TRAFFIC CONTROL DEVICES, TYPE AND CONDITION OF SURFACING) CAN BE EVALUATED QUANTITATIVELY UNDER VARYING TRAFFIC DENSITY AND WEATHER CONDITIONS PROVIDING A RATIONAL BASIS FOR GEOMETRIC DESIGN. IN THE PRESENT ANALYSIS IT IS POSTULATED THAT TRAFFIC REACTS TO A MOTIVATING PRESSURE POTENTIAL IN A PATTERN THAT DETERMINES THE BEHAVIOR OF ANY PARTICULAR VEHICLE TRAVERSING A GIVEN SECTION OF ROADWAY. THIS CONCEPT CAN BE EXPRESSED QUANTITATIVELY IN A MANNER ANALOGOUS TO THAT USED IN DESCRIBING ONE-DIMENSIONAL VISCOUS FLOW IN A COMPRESSIBLE FLUID. SOLUTION OF THE RESULTING DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION YIELDS A PARAMETER WHICH IS A NUMERICAL MEASURE OF THE SALIENT CHARACTERISTICS OF A ROAD. PROCEDURES ARE THEN PROPOSED TO DETERMINE THIS PARAMETER, USING MEASURABLE VEHICULAR VELOCITIES, WHICH ELIMINATE THE NEED FOR EVALUATING THE MOTIVATING PRESSURE POTENTIAL.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/hrbbulletin/308/308-006.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • No 308, pp 87-91, 1 FIG, 5 REF Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Authors:
  • Harr, Milton E
  • Leonards, Gerald A
• Conference:
  • 40th Annual Meeting of the Highway Research Board
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 1961-1-9 to 1961-1-13
• Publication Date: 1962

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Monograph Title: Operational effects of design and traffic engineering
• Serial:
  • Highway Research Board Bulletin
  • Issue Number: 308
  • Publisher: Highway Research Board

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Compressible flow; Differential equations; Flow; Fluid dynamics; Geometric design; Highway design; Traffic density; Traffic flow theory; Viscous flow; Weather
• Uncontrolled Terms: Fluid flow
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00227091
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Aug 13 2004 6:56PM